


Wings

by Fallen_Ark_Angel



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24971695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallen_Ark_Angel/pseuds/Fallen_Ark_Angel
Summary: Laxus is worried about slipping back down. Mirajane assures him it's not so bad; everything happens for a reason, after all.
Relationships: Laxus Dreyar/Mirajane Strauss
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Wings

Laxus' apartment was calm. Quiet. Different, honestly, than it had been only half an hour before when he had a demon clawing at his back while trying to stifle his groans enough so that he didn't get another noise complaint. He'd gotten one only a week prior, not involving the demon, but rather when the Thunder Legion was over and got a bit too rowdy.

He didn't want to have to pay some sort of fine. Or have to move out. He liked this apartment. Was in a good place in the city, cheap enough that he could justify owning it while rarely using it. After all, the slayer was frequently absent, taking either long S-Class jobs or equally as long sabbaticals. No longer journeying to find himself, he instead toured the Kingdom in attempts to keep himself just as he was. Currently. Not slipping back an inch.

If he hung around too much, he was certain he would fall prey to this. He had a penchant for self-destruction and was working hard to stay away from the triggers that typically led him down this road.

But he could admit that it was growing harder now. He'd been seeing Mirajane for a good number of months, verging on a year, and though it was sporadically spaced between weeks at a time, when he could be with her, when he was home, he was finding that there wasn't a single other place he wanted to be.

"Sometimes," he whispered to her that night as they lay beside one another, her with the intention of getting up early the next morning, as she frequently did, to open up the guildhall while he hoped to snooze until she once more found herself off, "I wish that I hadn't accomplished it all. So quickly. So young."

Mirajane blinked sleepily, weighing the options in herself on not only how to respond, but even if she should or not. She'd just finished showering off and, after the, uh, activities of the night preceding this, the warm water had only helped to further exhaust her and she really couldn't do it that night. Or at least she didn't think she could.

"Accomplished," she whispered softly into his chest, "what?"

"Everything," he answered with an ease only one who spent frequent hours considering his own self-worth and ranking it far above all others could.

And that was exactly what Mirajane meant when she thought she couldn't stand to deal with it.

His ego.

Self-obsession.

Absorption.

All famous mages had it to a certain extent. From Gildarts to Erza to Master Bob and even Master Makarov; if one was going to hone a skill so proficiently, they had to spend long hours with themselves and, frequently, conclude their value far outranked others. You didn't decide to dedicate your life to training, to mastering something so turbulent, without thinking the world of yourself.

Mirajane knew she too fell victim to such idolization at times.

But none, and she meant absolutely none, had anything on he dragon.

He was quiet now, Laxus was. Frequently. Kept his judgments to himself. But oh, if she didn't know now that they spent so much time alone, tangled up in only one another, just how deeply the man's vanity ran.

Though he appeared to be a changed man, he really was just great at burying versions of himself deep inside himself. Mirajane couldn't fault the man, of course; she'd long perfected the art.

"Everything," she repeated, tilting her head up to stare at him, her blue eyes glassy from the wine they'd shared not long ago. "Like-"

"Like," he took over, "my S-Class status. My magic level. My competence in it. I reached it all so young. When I was still a fucking kid. It just makes it hard."

"To do what?"

"To continue to grow," Laxus answered. One of his hands came up to brush against her pale cheek, the woman giving into the touch with a smile though the man kept up his serious gaze. "To even have the ability to. What do you do, demon? When you reach the pinnacle? Other than just turn around and go back down."

Humming some, she giggled as she said, "Well, I don't know, Lax. Maybe just sit down and look at the view."

"Yeah?" he grunted. "But for how long?"

"Until," she began though she held out the word, extending it until she arrived at a new thought. "Until you learn to fly."

"Mira, what?"

"Until you learn how to fly," she pointed out, "then you don't know everything. There's no going backwards on this journey, Lax. Only up. And if you've gone all you can walk or run or climb…. Then you gotta fly, right?"

There was a lull in the conversation, long enough for the man to glare down into Mirajane's eyes, trying to judge the seriousness they held, before grumbling, "How much did you have to drink?"

"It works. In the metaphor," she insisted with a frown. "If you've reached the end of what you can do, dragon, with what you have, then it's time to learn something new. To add to what you've already done. I don't mean you should really fly. I mean, unless of course you know someway to do so, because-"

"Demon-"

"You're not at the end, Laxus," she told him in a more serious tone then. "You're just becoming complacent; don't. It's that simple."

"That simple?"

"That," she insisted, "simple."

"So I should just learn Aero magic-"

"Yep."

"-sprout wings-"

"Uh-huh."

"-and fly up in the sky-"

"You got it now."

"And...eventually reach the end of the planet."

"There has to be something further than the skies, dragon," she insisted to him with a frown. "Fly into the stars. The back of beyond."

They laid there for a moment, both considering this, before Laxus' remarked, "That's the dumbest shit you've ever said."

"D-Dragon!" And she couldn't help it. The tears sprung into her eyes without much thought. "How could you-"

"Don't play with me, woman." He showed her no sympathy either as he only shoved up, turning to look at her as the woman, in turn, took to falling onto her back. Glaring down at her as he positioned himself over her once more, he grasped her chin in one hand, the other planted firmly on the bed beside her head, as he insisted, "I'm not one of your stupid guild friends. You can't pull one over on me."

Blinking back the fake tears, she said, "Crying's natural."

"You fake crying to get all the guys in the guildhall to tip better because you're so innocent and sweet," he retorted, "is not natural."

"Jealous, dragon?"

"Of what?" he questioned with a sneer. "Tossing money at something you'll never get?"

She turned her head then, the man releasing her jaw in kind. Sounding a bit piqued now, she only said, "Be careful, Lax; you're not sounding like a very good person right now."

"Who the fuck's the judge of that? You?"

"Me."

"I'll take my chances then."

He fell off then, onto his side, but their distance was quickly remedies as the man shifted closer to her. As one of his arms came to wrap around her stomach, she only patted at it, allowing herself to be cuddled into the man.

"Sometimes," he admitted against the side of head, nose buried in white hair, "I just get scarred that I'm going to walk back down it or...sit and stare or….fly the fuck away. I just… I don't want to fall back down. Tumble. And wind up back where I was."

Instead of insisting that he would never, that it was impossible, like he anticipated, the woman stroked at the arm resting over her, feeling all the indentations and idly tracing an old scar before saying, "So what if you do?"

"Huh?"

"So what," Mirajane insisted, "if you do? Fall down? Fall all the way down. To the bottom. Back to start. Are you gonna wallow there? Or get back up? Climb back up? You've carved out a path once before. And yeah, maybe you knocked some things over, on your way down, but you clear them and keep going. What other option is there, Laxus?"

Silent for a moment, he let out a huff of breath as he said, "I'm scared of the rocks."

"They cut, but nothing that won't heal."

"Would you like me better, demon?" he questioned then and his tone was changing, losing some of the solemn undertones. "With wings?"

Mirajane shut her eyes, tired, but knowing she'd weathered the storm for the time being.

"That depends," she whispered through a yawn. "Are they white feathery? Soft and precious? Or are they just fleshy and plucked? Gross?"

"Have you ever," he questioned, "seen a part of me that isn't immaculate?"

"I...don't know how to answer that."

"Yeah, well, it answers your question."

"Dragon..."

"What?"

"You didn't accomplish anything too early," she said as she nuzzled her head against his, the man tightening his hold, hugging her to him now, as if fearful of her leaving him. "Everything that happened, that you did, that you're going to do, it's all happening as it's supposed to happen. Nothing happens early or too late. If you're stagnant or complacent...it's because you need to be. Right now. Because you're waiting."

"For my wings?" he questioned against the side of her head, some what sarcastic.

"Yeah," she agreed though with sincerity. Drifting off, her breathing slowed as she only insisted to her boyfriend, "For your wings."

**Author's Note:**

> I know I've been flaking about uploading over here. Sorry about that. I usually definitely do it to Fanfic and then try to make sure I do to Tumblr, but I skip Archive sometimes. I'll try to be better.


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